Bartholomew County IN Archives Biographies.....Strickland, William Thomas 1834 - 
************************************************
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/copyright.htm
http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/in/infiles.htm
************************************************

File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com May 3, 2006, 2:20 am

Author: B. F. Bowen (1904)

p. 172 -176

MAJOR WILLIAM T. STRICKLAND.

   Among Indiana's distinguished citizens Major William Thomas Strickland, of
Columbus, was accorded a conspicuous place. Honored as a soldier and civilian,
his record in whatever capacity considered was eminently creditable, and it is
with pleasure that we present the following tribute to his worth, hoping not
only to throw light upon his long and useful career, but also to bring to the
notice of the public some of the more prominent of his many sterling
characteristics of head and heart.

   Major Strickland came of an old North Carolina family, the history of which
is traceable to Scotland, and from there to the Hoods of England, from which the
famous forester and noted outlaw, Robin Hood, is said to have sprung. Indeed, it
has long been a pleasing tradition, if nothing more, that the Strickland family
descended from this noted freebooter, evidences of the fact being so conclusive
as to admit of little question or doubt. Whether this be the case or not, the
family is a very old one, and many bearing the name have been prominent in the
annals of the various localities in which they lived, both in Europe and
America. Among the first of the family of whom there is definite knowledge is
William Strickland, the Major's grandfather, who was born August 21, 1795, in
North Carolina, and there married when a young man Miss Delaney Creach, whose
antecedents were also early pioneers of the Old North state. To this couple a
son, Samuel, was born on the 2d day of October, 1814, and in 1826 the family
migrated to Bartholomew county, Indiana, settling in the woods of what is now
Rock Creek township, where the father entered a tract of land from which he
subsequently developed a farm. According to the most reliable information
obtainable, this was the first settlement by white people within the present
bounds of the above township, and from that remote period to the present time
the name Strickland has been very closely interwoven with the history and
development of the county of Bartholomew. William Strickland was a man of
excellent parts, a true type of the rugged frontiersman of the times, strong of
body, independent in mind, industrious and frugal and withal devoutly religious,
having been for many years an earnest and consistent member of the Christian (or
Disciple) church. He was highly regarded as a neighbor, attended strictly to his
own affairs, but did much in a quiet way to advance the interests of the
community which he founded. This sturdy old pioneer made a good home, was fairly
prosperous and his death, which occurred in the month of December, 1864, at an
advanced age was deeply lamented by a large circle of acquaintances and friends
in his own township and other parts of the country. His wife, whose ancestors
for many generations were devout Baptists, united with the Christian church some
time after her marriage and lived the life of a faithful Christian the remainder
of her days, dying at the old home in Rock Creek, at the ripe old age of
eighty-six years.

   Samuel Strickland was about twelve years old when his parents moved to
Indiana. He assisted in clearing the farm and cultivating the same until
reaching the years of young manhood, when he entered land of his own, but later,
on the death of his father, purchased the family homestead and spent the
remainder of his life thereon. Like his father, he too was a typical pioneer,
spending nearly all of his leisure in the woods in search of game, having been a
skillful hunter and exceedingly fond of the sport. He united with the Christian
church in early life and when about twenty-four years old entered the public
ministry of the same, which work he continued during the remainder of his life.
He was pastor of the church at Burnsville for a number of years and preached at
regular intervals for several other congregations, his labors having been
greatly blessed in spreading the cause of the reformation throughout Bartholomew
and neighboring counties. Samuel Strickland was a good man, as all who came
within the range of his influence were ready to testify, and he always tried to
live according to his highest ideals of right and to make the world better by
his presence. He was also successful in his temporal affairs, having accumulated
a comfortable competence, which consisted largely of valuable real estate, his
property at one time being estimated at considerably in excess of twenty
thousand dollars. His wife, who bore the maiden name of Elizabeth Piercefield,
was a native of Tennessee, and the daughter of Thomas Piercefield, a well-to-do
planter of Grainger county, that state. When quite young, she was taken by her
parents to Kentucky, thence, in 1831, to Bartholomew county, Indiana, the father
entering land in Rock Creek township, on which he spent the remainder of his
days, dying here at the age of seventy-five. Valentine Piercefield, father of
Thomas, came to America from Scotland in colonial times, and, with three of his
sons, served in the war of the Revolution, one of the latter being afterwards
killed by the Indians when the war of 1812 broke out. Thomas tendered his
services to the country and took an active part in the struggle, participating
in several battles and proving under many trying circumstances a brave and
gallant soldier. Mrs. Strickland was fifteen years old when the family came to
Indiana, and she grew to womanhood and was married on the home place in Rock
Creek. She possessed a strong mind and beautiful character, was in every respect
a truly noble and exemplary woman and a sincere and devoted member of the
Christian church. She lived to a good old age, greatly beloved by all who knew
her, departing this life in her seventy-fourth year, the mother of thirteen
children, eight of whom survive; Samuel Strickland also rounded out a well spent
life, dying at the age of seventy-five.

   William Thomas Strickland, to a brief review of whose career the residue of
this sketch is devoted, was born May 24, 1834, on the old family homestead in
Rock Creek township, and there spent the years of his childhood and youth,
assisting, as soon as old enough, with the labors of the farm and at intervals
attended such schools as the country afforded. Being the oldest of the children,
much of the hard work naturally fell to him, but he acquitted himself manfully
and grew up strong and vigorous, with a proper conception of life and its
responsibilities.

   On December 18, 1852, when only eighteen years of age, Mr. Strickland was
united in marriage with Sarah Eddleman, a union terminated by the death of the
young wife thirteen months later, after which he took an academic course and
engaged in teaching. Mr. Strickland taught several terms, during which he took
up the study of medicine, to which he devoted his leisure time until the
breaking out of the great Civil war, when he laid aside his books, and with true
patriotic fervor tendered his services to the government in its time of need.  
 On the first day of September, 1861, he enlisted in Company B, Fifty-second
Indiana Infantry, and upon the organization of the company was elected captain,
which position he held until September 4, 1862, when by reason of brave and
meritorious conduct he was promoted to be major of the regiment. While serving
as captain he was placed in charge of the command at Ft. Pillow, Tennessee,
which, in addition to his own company, consisted of a siege battery, a battalion
of the Second Illinois Cavalry, and a detachment of a Pennsylvania regiment, the
district over which his authority extended including five counties, infested at
times with forces of the enemy as strong or stronger than his own. He discharged
the duties of this responsible and trying position in an able manner, and during
the eight months he was in command captured a large number of prisoners and
cleared his district of every appearance of the foe. Major Strickland was
discharged in 1864 after over three years of faithful and, in most part, arduous
active service, and he retired from the army with well earned laurels and a
record for bravery and gallantry of which any soldier might well feel proud.
Returning home at the close of the war, he engaged in merchandising at the town
of Alert, where for a period of ten years he conducted a general store, meeting
with encouraging success a part of the time, but later encountering financial
reverses. In addition to the dry-goods business, he also dealt considerably in
live stock, buying and shipping to the southern markets, but by reason of
financial stringency he was subsequently obliged to close out his establishment
at a considerable loss, after which he resorted to school teaching for a
livelihood.

   While in the army, Major Strickland devoted his spare time to reading law and
during his business career he also prosecuted his legal studies as opportunities
afforded. He was admitted to the bar in 1880 by the supreme court, and
immediately thereafter formed a partnership with Judge Hocker, of Columbus,
paying that gentleman the sum of one hundred and thirty-five dollars for a share
of the business and a half interest in his law library. During the ensuing ten
years the firm built up an extensive practice in the courts of Bartholomew and
other counties, the subject devoting particular attention to probate business,
for which his training especially fitted him, also achieving a wide reputation
as a successful real estate lawyer. At the expiration of the time noted he sold
out his practice and for about six months represented a wholesale house as
traveling salesman, in addition to which he also looked after his agricultural
interests, having the meanwhile purchased a valuable farm which he plentifully
stocked with high grade cattle, blooded horses and fine sheep. Retiring from the
road, the Major devoted his attention exclusively to farming and live stock
until October, 1899, when he purchased the Columbus Marble Works, which, in
connection with the interests specified, he conducted until his death, on
January 29, 1903.

   Major Strickland cast his first presidential vote for James Buchanan, but
becoming dissatisfied with the policy of the Democratic party just preceding and
during the Civil war, he abandoned it and gave his support to Abraham Lincoln.
He remained a zealous and uncompromising Republican thereafter and for many
years was not only one of the leaders of his party in Bartholomew county, but
one of its most influential workers in the central part of the state. In 1861 he
was elected as a union candidate to the general assembly, but feeling that his
services were more needed in the field than in the halls of legislation, he
refused to accept the honor and went to the front. He was again elected in 1870,
and served with honorable record in the forty-seventh assembly, during which
time he was placed on several important committees and took an active part in
the general deliberations of the house. He was made chairman of the Republican
central committee of Bartholomew county in 1896, the only time the county ever
gave a Republican majority, the success of the ticket in the campaign of that
year being largely attributed to his judicious management and wise leadership.
The Major was a sound, logical speaker and a most effective campaigner, and he
gave the party the benefit of his services in a number of local, district and
state elections, being popular with the masses and a favorite on the hustings.
In addition to his brief legislative experiences, he filled a number of minor
public positions, but was never a place seeker nor an aspirant for the honors or
emoluments of office. He served two terms on the Columbus school board, during
which time several of the best school buildings in the city were erected and
equipped, and he was always a warm friend and zealous advocate of public
education, having by his efforts and influence done much to advance its
interests in this part of Indiana. In 1856 Major Strickland was initiated into
the Masonic fraternity, joining St. John's Lodge No. 20, at Columbus. He was
also a Knight Templar and a member of the Scottish Rite, in which he was honored
with every official position within the power of that branch of the order to
bestow, being one of the few thirty-second-degree Masons of this part of
Indiana. He was widely known to the craft throughout the state, and his
popularity in his own city exceeded, perhaps, that of any other member of the
mystic tie. Without doubt he officiated at more Masonic funerals than any other
man in the county of Bartholomew, and as an enthusiastic Mason, whose life and
character exemplified the beautiful principles and sublime precepts of the
time-honored organization to which he belonged, he stood preeminent among his
brethren, with a prestige which few attained. Major Strickland was one of the
leading members and past commander of Joseph Keith Post No. 13, Grand Army of
the Republic, in the organization of which he was a leading spirit and in the
work, of which he always manifested a deep and abiding interest. Religiously he
accepted the plain,  simple teachings of the Christian church, in the faith of
which he was born and reared, being a member and elder of the Tabernacle church
in Columbus, of which congregation his widow is also a communicant. He was a
liberal contributor to all lines of religious and charitable work, a generous
supporter of enterprises having for their object the social good of the
community, and it can be truthfully stated that his influence and active
cooperation were always on the right side of every great moral issue.

   As may be readily inferred from the foregoing brief outline, Major Strickland
had a long, active, useful and, in the main, successful career, during which his
ability as a leader of men was plainly manifested, and his character, under all
circumstances whatsoever, above reproach. He was a man of great personal force
and superior judgment, whose enterprising spirit no difficulties could
discourage and whose example is eminently worthy of imitation. With a tenacity
of purpose as rare as it is admirable, he seemed to possess the faculty of
moulding conditions to suit his ends, rather than being affected by them. He was
also a man of great sagacity, was rarely mistaken in his estimate of men and
things, and foresaw with remarkable clearness future possibilities relating to
his  business interests and determined with a high degree of accuracy their
probable bearing. In all of his transactions he ever maintained scrupulous
integrity and gentlemanly demeanor, and by reason of his success, unblemished
character and just and liberal life he nobly earned the universal esteem which
he enjoyed. In every walk of life, whether as a business man or gallant leader
on bloody fields, his aim was to do his duty, and his friends feel proud of him
as an intelligent, high minded citizen and useful member of society. Believing
from the outset that a good name is more to be desired than riches or earthly
honors, and with no ambition for high station, he was governed from youth by
those fixed principles of rectitude which stamped him an exemplary citizen, an
obliging neighbor and a kind husband and father.

   Major Strickland's first marriage, as already stated, was of short duration,
but in 1857 he chose a second companion and helpmate in the person of Miss
Margaret Barrett, of Ohio, to whom he was joined in the bonds of wedlock on
January 22d of that year. This union has been blessed with three children, the
oldest of whom, a daughter by the name of Angeline, is the wife of Hon. J. B.
Reeves, a prominent manufacturer and representative citizen of Columbus; Minnie,
the second in order of birth, died at the age of twelve years, and the youngest,
a son by the name of John, is foreman of a large book bindery in the city of
Winona, Minnesota.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from

BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD OF BARTHOLOMEW COUNTY
INDIANA

INCLUDING BIOGRAPHIES OF THE GOVERNORS AND OTHER REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS OF INDIANA

ILLUSTRATED

1904

B. F. Bowen
PUBLISHER


File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/in/bartholomew/bios/strickla390nbs.txt

This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.net/infiles/

File size: 16.6 Kb